The Seagull Bakery opened its artisan sourdough microbakery right in the heart of Tramore, Co. Waterford giving everyone a chance to taste delicious, pure and nutritious real breads.

A graduate of Crawford College of Art and Design, Sarah has been supplying bread to the people of Tramore for many years, initially under the banner of Sarah’s bread in The Vic Deli and then moving on to supply the local farmers market in Tramore.

In 2013 she started Seagull Bakery and started to focus on wild yeast sourdoughs. Sarah further trained with Andre Whitely of Bread Matters, co-founder of the Real Bread Campaign in the UK, and at the School of Artisan food in Nottinghamshire. Sarah is a proud member of the Real Bread Ireland network also.

The bakery was initially based in a small unit in the back garden (converted art studio), and production was limited. Once large queues started forming on Saturday mornings at the Tramore farmers market, along with large number of requests from local restaurants and cafes to supply bread, Sarah realised it was time to move the bakery to new premises, and open a bakery shop. It has been an immensely rewarding and satisfying experience to see the local community embrace the bakery and a whole new range of customers emerge.

Sourdough bread uses natural fermentation techniques rather than using commercial yeast. This long fermentation method using ‘wild yeast’ is a pure and natural slow process which requires time and patience, each loaf receives much care and attention and relies heavily on the baker’s intuition and instinct. Sarah and the team start the sourdough breads 2 to 3 days before they are baked, it is a very labour intensive process as everything is handcrafted, and as it is a natural process it is influenced by the environment around it. There are only 3 ingredients in sourdough: Flour, salt and water, with the most important component being time. There are no chemical additives or improvers in our bread.

There are many health benefits to eating sourdough. The main benefit is that the gluten is more broken down due to the long fermentation process, meaning people who are gluten sensitive find they can eat sourdough bread as it is easier to digest than standard bread.

The range of sourdough breads on offer include white sourdough, wholemeal sourdough, 3 seed sourdough (sesame, linseed, sunflower), Seaweed sourdough (variations of dillisk, carrigeen, sugar kelp), 100% Rye sourdough, Breakfast rye sourdough (including chia, pumpkin, apricots, cranberries, hazelnut, oats), sourdough baguettes, brown yeast bread, and a weekly special bread.

Also in the new bakery are a range of artisan sourdough pastries that are produced from scratch on site. The range includes: croissants, pain au chocolat, almond croissants and pastries with seasonal fruit variations, for example plum and hazelnut, rhubarb and ginger. These pastries complement a range of sweet treats; chocolate rye brownies, cinnamon buns, orange scones and apple oaties. Outstanding take away coffee is provided also by a boutique Irish coffee roaster called Roasted Brown who supply single origin beans.

Sarah’s plans for the future are to compliment the range of sourdough breads with other healthy food products in the shop keeping the focus on nutrition. She is also actively involved in ‘Real Bread Ireland’ and wants to promote the benefits of real bread.